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Method for managing information and rendering discounts

a discount and information technology, applied in the field of information and rendering discounts, can solve the problems of complex information management, high development cost, and high cost of discount rendering software packages, and achieve the effect of reducing the number of steps, and reducing the complexity of the process

Inactive Publication Date: 2011-12-27
QWEST
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This approach simplifies the process of changing discount applications and adding functionality, providing flexibility and ease of portability across different billing platforms, allowing for more efficient management of customer information and rendering of discounts compared to non-rule-based systems.

Problems solved by technology

In many lines of business, and particularly in the telecommunications industries, managing information for a large number of customers may become quite complicated.
Applying the discounts to the bills, particularly in the telecommunications industries, may quickly become complicated due to the large number of customers and the large amounts of data for each customer during a particular billing period.
As such, developing a discount rendering software package is expensive, and takes a lot of time.
As such, it is not feasible to change the way in which discounts are rendered very often, because the software package is so application specific that it is sometimes necessary to develop an entire new application specific software package in order to revise the discount rendering technique.
Further, because the package generally is implemented for use with a highly defined billing structure, these applications are generally not usable by others than the company that the particular package is designed for.

Method used

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  • Method for managing information and rendering discounts
  • Method for managing information and rendering discounts
  • Method for managing information and rendering discounts

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

accumulation examples

[0033]The following examples make reference to the above tables, and the critical table portions are reproduced again, below. Also, refer to the later listed record layouts for the values used in the accumulation examples below. The tables CDFLS10T (block 62) and CDEFS10T (block 64) house the logical names and displacements per record per region. These tables make this process unique in the fact a logical name is assigned to a source field. The logical name can be attached to any field within a given record across the REGION with the same meaning or content. The accumulation criteria table thus can use logical names when building its criteria and does not care about the physical aspect. The join with the CDEF10T table allow attaching the displacements into a unique record with the given logical name. This process allows for great flexibility, enhances performance, allows table updates rather than source code changes, and is a great improvement over existing systems.

[0034]Following a...

example 1

Region: C (Central Region)

Input Record: 210 (Direct Dialed Call Detail Record

[0035]Step 1:

[0036]The first two rows on ACCRU10T (block 70) are applicable for a 210 record in region C. Row 1 refers to field CALL-DUR (call duration) and points to accumulation rule R0000001.

[0037]

SourceAccumr-Accmr-Function-Ruls-Eff-Ruls-Lst-Updt-RegionRec IdFieldAccmr-Rle-NmeNmeSto_Seq_NoNameDatDscntn-DatDatC210Call-DurR00000011998-02-232099-12-311998-02-23C210Msg-R00000021998-02-232099-12-311998-02-23Chrg-Amt-Tot

[0038]Step 2:

[0039]Table ACCCR10T is accessed for all criteria ids with a rule equal to R0000001.

[0040]ENTY-CD=MTT

[0041]MSG-TYP=1

[0042]Process:

[0043]Criteria id 001 is false, take the false compare and point to criteria id 002.

[0044]Criteria id 002 is true, take true compare and point to criteria id 003.

[0045]Criteria id 003 is true, and since no next criteria id, accumulation answer is group 1.

[0046]

True-Criteria-ValueTrueFalseAccmr-False-Accmr-IdData-FieldOperationTypeValueCompareCompareGr-I...

example 2

[0054]Region: C (Central Region)

[0055]Input Record: B61 (Monthly service USOC record)

[0056]This process shows how a FUNCTION name can be used in the ACCRU10T (block 70) table to show another way to accumulate data.

Step 1:

[0057]The following row on ACCRU10T (block 70) is applicable for a B61 record in region C. This row is accumulating the usoc charge stored in CRB-B61-LSJRC. The Accumulation Engine recognizes that the function name is populated and calls that function dynamically.

[0058]This particular function was built specifically for usoc product records. It accumulates the specific usoc based on an entry in the Tiered product table (TIGLP11V; see below). It can accumulate the money only, keep track of the “count” of usocs of that kind, or both. The accumulation is controlled in this case by this function call. The proper logical names are used in the source code to extract the correct fields off of the input record.

[0059]

Ruls-SourceAccumr-Accmr-Function-Ruls-Eff-Dscntn-Lst-Regio...

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Abstract

A method for managing information and rendering discounts in a billing system utilizes a rule-based engine. Customer records are processed with a rule-based accumulation engine to accumulate the data in a plurality of predetermined target accumulators. A plurality of target accumulators are processed with a rule-based discount engine to render discounts applicable to the customer.

Description

[0001]This is a continuation of application(s) Ser. No. 09 / 421,038 filed on Oct. 20, 1999 now abandoned.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to a method for managing information and rendering discounts in a billing system.BACKGROUND ART[0003]In many lines of business, and particularly in the telecommunications industries, managing information for a large number of customers may become quite complicated. Further, customer bills are often adjusted by various discounts. Applying the discounts to the bills, particularly in the telecommunications industries, may quickly become complicated due to the large number of customers and the large amounts of data for each customer during a particular billing period.[0004]In an existing method for rendering discounts, a complex application specific software package is developed to render discounts in a particular billing system having a highly defined structure. The application specific software package is developed for a single comp...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Patents(United States)
IPC IPC(8): G06Q30/00G06F17/30H04M15/00
CPCG06Q30/02G06Q30/0207G06Q30/0215
Inventor HAFNER, CHASE A.MUTSCHLER, WILLIAM R.WALKER, BRIAN J.JOYCE, DAVID S.
Owner QWEST